


Beautiful Lie

by teamchasez



Category: Backstreet Boys, Lance Bass - Fandom, Nick Carter - Fandom, Pop Music RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 05:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2954018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchasez/pseuds/teamchasez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fight leads to a discovery in Rachel's and Nick's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Well hello my little peanuts,” Lance Bass spoke into the microphone when the opening sequence of his radio show ended. “It’s me Lance Bass for Dirty Pop on OutQ108 and Cosmo 109. Guess what? It’s Friday!” The chorus of excitement rang in his ears from the people sitting around him. “That’s right,” he grinned. “It’s finally Friday and you know what that means… it’s time for the Dirty Pop Top Ten.”

“I’m excited for these songs.” Drew said.

“I don’t think I’ve heard any of these songs,” Rachel Bass said as she glanced at the list Lance had given her before the show had gone on air.

“Oh, come on; you’ve had to have heard some of these songs,” Drew said, speaking over Lance’s ‘what’.

“I heard number nine,” Rachel said as she glanced over the list of songs Lance would be playing over the course of the two hour radio show. “And number one. Number three…four.”

Lance laughed as Rachel started naming off more and more numbers. “Do you know who sings them though?”

“Of course,” Rachel grinned holding up the paper. “It’s listed right here.”

“How come you get a list of the songs?” Lisa leaned over to look at the piece of computer paper.

“No kidding,” Michael spoke up staring at the two women. “What’s up with that Lance?”

“He just likes me best,” Rachel grinned, sending Michael a cheeky smile.

“And she threatened me,” Lance laughed. “Let me introduce my peanuts today,” he said as everyone fell quiet. “With me today is Drew Boo…”

“What up everyone?” Drew spoke into the microphone.

“Giggles DelCampo.”

“Hi,” Lisa spoke quietly, smiling.

“Turkey Turchin.”

“Hello.”

“And my sister,” Lance paused grinning.

“Twin sister,” Drew interrupted.

“My twin sister,” Lance said putting emphasis on the twin. “Rachel Bass.”

“Hi,” Rachel said.

“You guys look nothing alike,” Drew stated.

“What?” Lisa broke in. “Are you serious?”

“Look at them.” Michael said, looking from his boyfriend to Rachel. “Aside from the obvious…”

“Yeah, they have the same hair color, same eyes,” Lisa spoke. “The eyes still throw me, even after all this time.”

“Cut Rachel’s hair off…”

“Not a chance,” Rachel cut Michael off. “I look like an idiot with short hair.”

Everyone broke out laughing and it took a minute for Rachel to catch up. She felt the giggles bubble up from her chest. She looked at Lance, laughing out loud at the look on his face.

“I think the best thing was she had no idea what she said,” Drew said as he controlled his laughter.

“Rachel dressed up as Lance for Halloween last year,” Michael said.

“Did she fool you?”

Michael shook his head. “No,” he said laughing. “Totally obvious.”

“Not for some,” Lance spoke under his breath. “But we need to go to our first song on today’s edition of the Dirty Pop Top Ten countdown. I’m really excited for theses songs today. We all know these songs, but you probably have no idea who sings them…””

While Lance did his thing introducing the first song on the countdown, Rachel pulled her phone from her pocket. She unlocked it and looked at her message icon. She sighed softly when there was no red bubble in the corner of the icon to alert her of a new message. Looking back she knew she had overreacted, but at the time she was upset. Now that she had time to think about it she knew she had made a mountain out of a mole hole. 

“You pulling up those pictures?” Lance spoke. Their microphones were off while the song played over the air. He frowned at the look on Rachel’s face. When she lifted her eyes to meet his, he stared at her. ‘Are you okay?’

Rachel nodded, answering Lance’s unanswered question.

‘Liar,’ Lance raised an eyebrow.

‘I’m okay,’ Rachel sent him a small smile.

“Wait? What?” Drew exclaimed, looking back and forth between Rachel and Lance. “What just happened here?”

“They were just talking to each other,” Michael said watching the exchange. He saw the worry flash across Lance’s face. He was sure no one else caught it, aside from Rachel.

“Haven’t you heard of people having a conversation with their eyes?”

Lance’s voice interrupted them all as the song ended and he brought them back on air. “…with your number ten song. Before the song we were talking about Halloween.”

“Wait a minute, I want to talk about what just happened,” Drew interrupted Lance. “You and Rachel just spoke to each other without saying anything.”

“Happens all the time,” Rachel spoke up.

“It does,” Michael said. “They can sit there and carry on a whole conversation without ever speaking a word. It’s disturbing sometimes.”

“Yeah, especially when you think they are talking about you.” Lisa said.

“We’ve never done that,” Lance said. When the group sent him disbelieving looks, he relented. “Okay, we have done it before. But not to anyone in this room.”

“So here’s what happened for those of you not here,” Drew said into the microphone, disbelief still on his face. “Lance cuts to the song and it falls silent in here, which it never does. I look over at Lance and he’s staring at Rachel. And they are just staring at each other. You could almost see the words in the air.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Rachel said feeling a blush warm over her face.

“How long have you guys done that?”

Rachel looks over at Lance. “Forever?”

“Yeah,” Lance nodded in agreement. “As long as I can remember, we could always look at each other and carry on a conversation.”

“Can you and Lauren do this?” Drew asked, looking at Michael.

“No we can’t.”

“For those of you who don’t know, Lauren is Michael’s twin.”

“The mean one,” Lance broke in with a grin.

“So who’s the mean one? You or Rachel?”

“Neither of us are mean,” Rachel said.

“I would have to agree,” Lisa said.

“So back to this Halloween topic,” Drew said, moving back to what was brought up before Lance had played the first song. “You dressed up as Lance for Halloween? We saw the photos of Michael and Lance.”

“I did dress up as Lance,” Rachel laughed, remembering. She quickly scrolled through the photos on her phone until she came up with one of her dressed as Lance, standing next to Lance. She passed the phone to Lisa.

“I’ve seen this,” Lisa said looking at the photo, before passing the phone to Drew. “If you look at it really quick, you wouldn’t be able to tell.”

“Nick and I went to a couple of parties,” Rachel said. “The first one, someone came up to me and asked where Michael was.”

The group laughed as Rachel told the story.

“What did you say?” Lisa asked after she stopped laughing.

“I couldn’t believe it, ya know. I didn’t expect to fool anyone. So I just said he was in the bathroom,” she said and the group laughed again. “The second time, I was hit on. He came onto me thinking I was Lance. I thought Nick was never gonna stop laughing. I mean, seriously, Nick was with me the whole night, why would Lance go to a party with Nick?”

“For our listeners who don’t know,” Lance said.

“For those who have been living under a rock for the past what? Four years?” Drew asked.

“Five.” Rachel said.

“Wow, five years.” Drew stated. “That’s a long time.”

“Yes it is,” Rachel nodded. “September will be six.”

“Over five years together…”

“What’s he waiting on?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah, when’s he gonna put a ring on it?”

Rachel could feel her face flaming in embarrassment. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have the answer to that. They never really talked about marriage. She knew Nick wasn’t too sold on the idea of marriage; stemming from his own parent’s marriage. She sent Lance a look for help.

“He’s been talking to Joey Fatone,” Lance cut in, saving his sister from having to answer. “Whenever Joey was asked when he was going to marry Melissa Joey would say he was on the ‘ten year plan’. So what we were trying to say, that for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, my sister here is dating Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys.”

“What made you date him?”

“Justin Timberlake was taken.” She quipped causing the studio to break out into laughter.

“We’ll hear more from my sister about Nick, if we can get her to spill, after our number 9 song.”

“I think we should give away a prize,” Lisa said.

“I think so too. I like giving away prizes,” Lance agreed. “If you know the artist to the next song, be the first caller,” he rattled off the number before kicking off to the next song. He looked over at his sister, wanting to know what was wrong. But he couldn’t come right out and ask her in front of everyone.

“We need to take a picture so I can put it on the Twitter page,” Lisa said, picking up her cell phone.

“Okay,” Rachel smiled. She looked for her own phone, having not seen it since she’d passed it down to Drew. She caught sight of it sitting in front of Lance. It had apparently made its way around the room and Lance forgot about it. It wasn’t all that surprising. Lance proclaimed he had ADD. None of them disputed that claim. “Come on Michael.”

“Alright,” Michael pulled the headphones from his ears, sitting them down on the desk before pushing himself up from his chair. His muscles protested from his afternoon workout at the gym with Lance. He stood behind Rachel and leaned forward, draping his arms around her.

“You’re giving my brother an excellent view,” Rachel laughed, placed one of her hands on his forearm.

“Lance is adjusting himself as we speak,” Drew laughed as the picture was taken.

“Damn right,” Lance said before quickly jumping back on the air welcoming the listeners. “That was our number nine song, ‘Crush’. And looking at the phones, a lot of you got it right. But our first caller was, Linda from Nevada. Linda you’re on air with Dirty Pop.”

“Hi Lance! Hi Peanuts!”

“Hello Linda,” Lance said as everyone else said hello. Michael was still situating himself back on the chair and putting on his headphones. “Do you know the artist who sang out last song?”

“Jennifer Paige,” Linda’s voice rang in their ears.

“That’s right!” Lance proclaimed as a jingle played with the help of Monica. “Linda you just won a gift from our Ricki Lake swag bag! Woo hoo!”

“Awesome!” The happiness was evident in her voice. “Speaking of the lovely Ms. Paige; is it true that she’s filming a video with Nick Carter?”

“Uh,” Lance raised his eyes meeting Rachel’s. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Rachel?”

“Yes, Linda,” Rachel spoke into the microphone. “That’s what he’s doing today actually.”

“I can’t wait to see the video; I love that song.”

“Thanks for calling Linda; stay on the line for our producer so you can pick your gift. We gotta take our first break here. And during this break, I’m gonna have to find out about this song between Nick Carter and Jennifer Paige because I don’t think I’ve heard it.” When he went to commercial, he turned toward his sister. “I feel like I’m behind on news. Nick did a song with Jennifer Paige?’

Rachel nodded, “Yeah. It came out a couple months ago. ‘Beautiful Lie’.”

“Why haven’t I heard this?” Lance asked.

“No idea Lance, why haven’t you heard this?” Drew asked.

“I’ve heard it,” Lisa jumped in. “I like it.”

“I need to hear this,” Lance said watching as Drew immediately jumped on his phone to start searching for the song.  
“It’s on my phone,” Rachel said, nodding her head at the device lying in front of Lance. She watched as Lance picked up her phone and started messing.

“Are you gonna let us hang here?” Drew asked as the commercial stopped and Lance was still fiddling with Rachel’s phone.

“Lance?” Michael called.

“What?” Lance looked up and saw everyone staring at him expectantly. “Oh, welcome back to Dirty Pop on OutQ108 and Cosmo 109. Sorry about that, I was looking up a song; a duet between the artist who was number nine this week on out Top Ten, Jennifer Paige and Backstreet Boy member, Nick Carter.”

“You know I heard something about that last song,” Lisa spoke up, still seeing Lance a little distracted. “Did you hear who that song was supposedly written for?”

“No,” Drew said, “Who?”

“Well Jennifer used to tour with NSYNC.”

“I heard something about this,” Lance said catching what Lisa was saying. He looked up from the phone. “She didn’t actually go on tour with us; it was on a radio tour or something like that.”

“Right; well I guess when she was with you guys, she wrote this song about Joey.”

Lance chuckled. “I have heard this. ‘Crush’ by Jennifer Paige is written about Joey Fatone.”

“Does Melissa know this?”

“She does,” Rachel said. “She thinks it’s funny. She probably hasn’t heard that song in years.”

“Isn’t that something,” Drew said. “First she crushes on Joey and writes a song about it. And now she’s singing a duet with Nick Carter. What’s next?”

“98 Degrees,” Michael said. His eyes watched Lance who still fiddled with Rachel’s phone. “Are you going through Rachel’s phone?”

“Hey!” Rachel exclaimed; “Give that back or I’ll tell your deepest secrets.”

“I don’t have any,” Lance says smiling at Rachel. “You got something on here you don’t want me to see? Sexting Nick?”

“Yeah right,” Rachel laughed, rolling her eyes. “I’m thirty-three years old. I don’t need to be sexting anyone. I’m about fifteen years too old for that.”

“You don’t talk dirty to Nick?” Lance asked.

“This is a little weird to be talking about this topic with my brother.” Rachel stated, sending a glare in Lance’s direction.

“You should text him right now, Lance.” Drew grinned.

“What? No,” Lisa gasped.

“What do you say, Turkey?” Lance looked at his boyfriend. “Come on Turkey…”

“Normally I’d say do it,” Michael said. “But I’m within striking distance.”

“Turkey,” Lance groaned shaking his head. The gobbling sounded in his ear as Monica hit the sound button designated for Michael.

“Just do it Lance, it’s not called Dirty Pop for nothing,” Drew egged Lance on.

Lance quickly tapped out a message on his sister’s phone ignoring everyone else. He pressed send as he looked up, meeting Rachel’s glare.

“By tomorrow that’s gonna be all over the rags how Lance Bass was sexting Nick Carter,” Drew laughed.

“Oh yeah,” Lance laughed. 

“I hate you,” Rachel said.

“Ahh,” Lance frowned. “I love you.” He smiled at Rachel, giving her a wink. “This is Friday right? We need to get back on our countdown.”

“Yes we do,” Lisa spoke up.

“Your ADD is really bad today, Lance.”

“I know, right?” Lance said. “It’s because Rachel’s here. What song were we on again?”

“Uhm, eight I think.”

“Yeah because ten was ‘Inside Out’ and nine was ‘Crush’,” Michael said.

“Wow, are we only on song eight?” Lance said glancing up at the clock beside the television airing a muted CNN. “We are so behind.”

“That’s alright; we’ll just have to air a couple songs back to back.” Drew said.

Rachel stared pointedly at Lance as he ran through announcing the next song, conveniently leaving off the artist, asking for callers to call in with their guesses. It was one of the songs that Rachel didn’t know but Lance knew it; something to do with Orlando. She didn’t know.

She wanted her phone back. It was hard to tell what Lance had texted Nick. And if he had texted Nick, he had probably seen at least the last text she had sent Nick. One saying how she was sorry, that she overreacted. She sighed in relief when she saw Lance hand her phone to Michael, who passed it to her.

She quickly pulled up her text messages see what damage control she had to do. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do if Nick responded to whatever Lance put. It would definitely be embarrassing when she had to explain what had happened. She highlighted Nick’s name, ignoring everyone around her. She read the message Lance sent Nick twice before she comprehended the words.

‘Forgive my sister. She’s definitely regretting whatever happened. She loves you.’

Rachel looked up, meeting Lance’s eyes.

Michael watched the exchanged wondering what was going on. When Rachel had first arrived, he knew there was something wrong. Even though she smiled and still laughed before they had gone on-air something was off. Lance had caught it too, but there wasn’t enough time to get into what was plaguing Rachel. But watching the display between the two; whatever it was, Lance knew about it now.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick Carter took a drink of water as he sat in a chair beneath a pop up awning that was better suited at a back yard bar-be-que. But it blocked the sun. The day had already been long and there was still a lot left to shoot. Now he wished they had started off with the acting scenes first and gotten them out of the way instead of doing the in-studio singing. That could have been shot anytime. But this wasn’t his deal. He just welcomed the break.

The studio shots, in his opinion had taken a long time to film. And they shouldn’t have. He was standing with Jennifer in front of a red background. All they had to do was sing the song. That had taken a lot of takes before the director finally conceded, proclaiming he had what he wanted. They had another run through of singing the song in the studio with he and Jennifer in front of the microphone hanging down from the ceiling.

They just wrapped up the scenes for the beginning and the end of the video. The beginning scene had him and Jennifer, wearing masks, standing in front of a jewelry store they were getting ready to rob. He portrayed the hesitant boyfriend and Jennifer had to talk him into it. She did. By telling him to think of the money and promised to make him ‘feel good’ later. She also told him she loved him. He chuckled to himself, rolling his eyes. It was cheesy. But he knew there was probably some poor louse out there that would fall for a line like that from a beautiful woman.

He liked the end scene to the video. It turned out that he was a cop. Before they had a chance to actually rob the store, Nick’s partner came up and they both arrested Jennifer leading her away. He thought that was pretty cool, especially since he knew what would happen in the other scenes.

When he thought of the other scenes, he sighed remembering the fight he had gotten into with Rachel this morning. He had a meeting with Jennifer and the director. It was then he got the overview of what was going to happen in the video. He had to kiss Jennifer. And he let that tidbit of information slip to Rachel. Who took that information and ran.

Nick rubbed his head. He had tried to keep his temper in check but it was a losing battle and toward the end of the fight, he was yelling and slamming things louder and harder than Rachel. Now he could see that it was blown out of proportion. He could see how Rachel had gotten upset. In all of the videos he’s done (Backstreet Boys and his own) he had never kissed another woman in them. Even if there could have been a spot in the video for him to do so. All the directors he worked with knew if he had a girlfriend at the time, he wouldn’t kiss someone.

He tried to explain what would happen, but Rachel had flipped just hearing that he was gonna kiss another woman. Then he just continued to dig himself in a deeper hole when he kept trying to tell her it was supposed to be a little kiss – a brush of the lips. That had been stupid on his part. It made him sound like he wanted the kiss, which he didn’t. Which he had tried to explain but by then nothing he said was penetrating Rachel’s brain. He’d stormed from the house, exuding anger.

That had been hours ago.

Nick sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling his cell phone out. Before unlocking his phone, he saw he had a handful of messages filling up the screen. He slid his finger across the screen, unlocking the phone. The picture of he and Rachel on the background never failed to bring a smile to his face and this time was no different. He tapped the message icon bringing up his text messages. His eyes zoned in on Rachel’s name, bold because there were unread messages.

He tapped her name first, eager to read the message. He frowned at the text. ‘Forgive my sister. She’s definitely regretting whatever happened. She loves you.’ He wondered why Lance was sending a text on Rachel’s phone. He backed out of Rachel’s messages and scrolled through the main message screen. Lance’s name was there from an earlier text but there was nothing new. He opened Rachel’s texts again and reread the words.

Checking the time, he saw that it was after three. Rachel would be at the studio where Lance broadcasted his radio show from. He had hoped to be able to catch some of it to hear Rachel’s radio debut. He wondered how she was doing. He knew she was nervous about being on the radio and with the added fight…

Tapping the screen, Nick brought up the keyboard and quickly typed out a message. ‘I love you’ He pressed send and stared at the message screen wondering if he’d hear back from her. When a response wasn’t immediate, he pulled up his message screen again and started reading the new texts that had come in while he was doing the video shoot.

As he read through the messages, he noticed a reoccurring theme. All of them pertained to Lance’s show. Some commented about his sex life and the lack of sexting. Others made jokes on the subject. All wanted to know what Lance had text him. Apparently Lance was supposed to sext him.

‘What the hell is going on on that show?’ He wondered. He knew one thing; Lance definitely hadn’t sexted him. He reached down for his backpack and dug through the outer pocket for his earphones. Snapping them into his phone, he put the buds in his ear and pulled up the SiriusXM app on his phone. A minute later Lance’s voice was in his ear.

“Welcome back my little Peanuts. During the break I was finally able to listen to ‘Beautiful Lie’. I like it. I can’t believe I haven’t heard it until now.”

“I can’t believe it either Lance,” another voice spoke up and Nick raided his brain to come up with the owner. ‘Drew.’ “This guy is practically your brother-in-law and you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t know,” Lance said honestly. “Maybe there is still some Backstreet, NSYNC animosity between us.”

Nick heard a chuckle break through and he smiled recognizing Rachel. “You’re full of crap, Lance.”

“You and Nick are like BFFs,” Michael said.

“Now this I want to know,” Drew said. “Was their animosity between the two groups?”

“No,” Lance said. “Before we get into that, let me introduce my peanuts. Joining me is Drew Boo.”

“What up everyone?”

Nick turned off the program. He tapped out a text quickly to Lance and waited for a reply. Smiling when one immediately appeared he dialed the number Lance had sent him. He got a hold of Monica and was placed on hold waiting for Lance. He wasn’t on hold for very long when he heard Lance’s voice in his ear.

“Now we can get the real dirt,” Lance grinned. “Because I can tell you anything I want right now and you’re gonna believe me.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Michael said.

“Joining us on the phone right now is the one and only Nick Carter!” Lance smiled at Rachel, giving her a wink. “Aren’t you supposed to be shooting a video right now?”

“I am,” Nick said. “I told them I wasn’t available from three to five because I had to listen to your show.”

“Love it. Love it.” Lance said.

“Can you tell us what the video is about?” Drew asked. “We just listened to the song in the studio, for Lance’s benefit and we all liked it.”

“I don’t know how much I can talk about. But we just finished two parts of the shoot. The easiest parts. Jennifer and I in the studio singing and then they put us in front of a backdrop singing into the camera. They’ll work their magic at the end of filming and splice those scenes in with the rest. The rest, I have to do a little acting…”

Lance watched the emotions play on his sisters face as Nick described a little of the details from the video shoot. He wondered just how intimate the director wanted these ‘jewel thieves’ to be.

“I can’t give it away; the ending is a surprise, so you should definitely watch the whole thing through.”

“Since you have a song with Jennifer, does that mean she’s going to be touring with you guys?” Lisa asked.

“No. We have a couple great opening acts already slated for the tour,” Nick explained. “I have a few dates for my own shows in the bigger markets. I haven’t worked out a final set for these shows, if this song makes it; I’ll find someone to fill in Jennifer’s vocals.”

“How does that work?” Drew broke in. “You’re part of the biggest boyband, sorry Lance; twenty years together, still touring, still selling out shows. But you’re also a solo artist. How do you find the time?”

“It was rough at first,” Nick said honestly. “There were times I didn’t know where I was supposed to be; if I was heading for something Backstreet related or not.”

“What did you do to make it easier?” Lisa asked, interested in the answer.

“Handed my schedule to Rachel and told her to deal with it,” Nick said with a smile on his face. He heard the laughter from the studio in his ear.

“This is true,” Rachel spoke up. “We hadn’t been together very long. Like three or four months…”

“Which is like equivalent to three years when dating a rock star,” Lance said. “Dating a celebrity is like dog years.”

“That true Michael?”

“He’s definitely more high maintenance,” Michael said, grinning when he caught Lance’s look.

“So Nick handed his schedule over and said what, ‘here’?” Lisa asked, bringing the topic back around.

“More or less,” Rachel laughed. “So we’d only been dating a few months. And Nick,” she started giggling.

“Laugh it up,” Nick said, delighted hearing Rachel laughing. He hoped that meant she wasn’t angry anymore.

“Nick got a little confused on where he was supposed to be and when. So he showed up two hours early at the rehearsal, thinking it was Backstreet Boys stuff.”

“And it wasn’t?” Lisa asked a little horrified at thinking if the same happened to her and having Lance in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“No. He was freaking out wondering where the rest of the guys were. Trying to call Brian, Howie and AJ. It was only after he was asked to sing two of his songs before he realized…”

“It was just Nick Carter sans Backstreet.” Lance laughed.

“After that, Rachel’s handled it all.”

“And nothing like that never happened again,” Rachel grinned. 

“But how does that work?” Drew asked. “You tour and such with Backstreet Boys have Backstreet related stuff, but you’re also a solo artist.”

“Well my first priority is with the Backstreet Boys,” Nick explained. “My solo stuff gets scheduled around that. When I do shows, they are when we aren’t touring or when we are scheduled to be in a town for a couple days for whatever reason; I’ll schedule a smaller concert somewhere in town.”

“This is a countdown show and we are running way behind,” Lance cut in. “I don’t think this has ever happened. But then we hadn’t planned on Nick calling in.”

“Well we’re on number what?” Michael asked leaning over to look at the paper Rachel had in front of her. “Song four? We have plenty of time.”

“Plenty of time, Lance,” Drew echoed.

Rachel sat back in her chair, a smile on her face. Just hearing Nick’s voice lifted her spirits. She lifted her phone, tapping the button at the bottom bringing up her screen. Her smile widened when she saw the text message from Nick. She unlocked her phone and quickly tapped out her reply. ‘I love you too. I’m sorry.’

“So Nick was there animosity between Backstreet Boys and NSYNC?” Drew asked.

“We never hated each other,” Nick said. 

“We didn’t know each other,” Lance said.

“Yeah, that’s the big thing. We didn’t know each other. They did their thing and we did ours. We respected their music…”

“That sounds like a crap answer,” Drew broke in.

“Ignore Drew,” Lance said. “He’s snarky today.”

“Apparently he’s not getting sexted,” Rachel said as everyone laughed.

“Now that’s the topic I wanted to talk about,” Nick said. He heard a groan come through the receiver and could imagine Rachel with her hands over her face. “Sit down on this break and my phone has all these messages…”

“Jeez Lance, how many messages did you send?” Drew asked.

“Oh God,” Rachel moaned, her face flaming.

“More importantly what did they say?” Michael asked looking at Lance.

“That’s between me and Nick,” Lance said secretively. “I’ll text it to you later, Turkey.” His voice low and sexual.

“Rachel says she doesn’t send you dirty texts; is that true?” Drew spoke.

Nick’s laugh filtered through their ears. “Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

“They don’t call it Dirty Pop for nothing. So?”

“Yeah,” Nick chuckles. “I’m not going to answer that question.” He looked up seeing Jennifer walking toward him. Break time was over.

“Good answer,” Rachel said with a smile. “You’ll be properly rewarded for that later.”

“Now I know what you were talking about. This is a little weird to be hearing this,” Lance spoke but he was smiling. Happy to finally see his sister’s mood brighten.

“Time to get back to work guys,” Nick said, motioning for Jennifer to give him a minute. “Break time is over.”

“Aww,” Lance said, hearing the news. “Sorry listeners, we have to let Nick go. He’s got to get back to earning money to keep my sister dressed in her expensive taste of clothing and all those high end restaurants she likes to eat at.”

“Yeah,” Nick laughed. “She has expensive tastes.”

“Well, he was gonna be rewarded later,” Rachel muttered. “Not anymore.” She rolled her eyes, playing at the teasing. Everyone in the room knew that was the furthest from the truth. She was happy wearing a pair of Target sweats and eating off the Dollar Menu at McDonalds.

“We’ll see,” Nick stated. “Alright guys; I’m out. Later. Love you Rachel.”

In the midst of ‘awws’ Rachel grinned, “I love you too.”


	3. Chapter 3

“One more… Come on guys,” Lisa said when they groaned.

“This feels like a wedding and the photographer wants a picture of every combination possible,” Rachel said, but kept her position next to Lance as Michael moved next to her for Lisa to take a picture of the three of them together. The last picture had just been her and Lance. The group shots had already been taken before Drew had to leave to meet his boyfriend.

“Gotta hot date?” Lance asked as he wound his arm behind his sister, feeling Michael do the same.

“Oh yeah,” Rachel smiled at Lisa as she snapped the picture. “Michael promised me dinner.”

“Is that right?” Lance drawled. “And when was this?”

“When you were sexting my boyfriend.” Rachel grinned at him as they separated. She hooked her arm around Michael. She hugged him laying her head on his chest, sending Lance a grin.

“So you felt the need to hit on my boyfriend.”

“Seemed only fair.” Rachel shrugged. She squeezed Michael before releasing him and moved to gather her things, missing the look Lance sent both Michael and Lisa.

Michael grabbed his things from where he’d been sitting. He looked at Rachel before sending Lance a smile. He waited for Lisa and they walked from the room together, leaving Lance alone with his sister.

“What’s going on?”

Rachel’s shoulders slumped and she felt the tears well in her eyes. She let her keys and phone drop down to the desk and covered her face. In seconds she felt Lance behind her and arms engulf her.

“Hey,” Lance whispered softly as Rachel turned in his arms, burying her face against his neck. He held her tightly; her arms worming their way around his waist. “Shhh; it’s alright.” He held her as she cried wondering what could possibly be wrong. After hearing them both during his show, especially with them both saying ‘I love you’ before Nick had to go, he would have assumed everything was okay. He had definitely seen his sister’s face when she read a text message he assumed had been from Nick. But apparently he was wrong.

“We had a fight,” Rachel mumbled as the tears subsided. She lifted her head from Lance’s chest, moving away, wiping at the tear tracks. A tissue appeared in front of her and she took it, raising her gaze to look at Lance. As she wiped her face she sat down on the floor, leaning back against the wall.

Lance said nothing. He just grabbed the small box of tissue that was leftover from a show last week when Lisa was under the weather. He didn’t question his sister’s choice of seating, just folded his body, sitting down next to her. He crossed his legs at the ankles and waited.

“I don’t want to tell you.” Rachel said, sneaking a peek at Lance. “I come out really really bad in it.”

Lance laughed softly, taking her hand. “I don’t doubt it.”

“Hey!” Rachel snatched her hand back, glaring at him. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“I am,” Lance tells her grabbing her hand again. “I am,” he tells her more firmly. “What happened?”

“This video,” Rachel sighed, letting her head fall back against the wall with a soft thud. Lance remained silent. He knew she would tell him eventually. “He had a meeting this morning with Jennifer and the director,” she started. “They went over what was going to happen in the video. I don’t know why I’m explaining this to you; you know how this works.”

“Rachel,” Lance said slowly, his voiced lowered. “It doesn’t matter; just tell me in your own way.”

“There was time between that meeting and when they would actually start filming, so he came back home and told me what the video was going to be; how they were going to do it,” as she spoke, she head tilted further and further until it was laying on Lance’s shoulder. “It was really cool. Them singing in front of a red screen. I thought that would turn out great. The jewel heist was good, with them getting away with it but it turns around to be a lie with Nick actually being a cop and he arrests Jennifer before the robbery even takes place.

“They had this all plotted out. The robbery, the pursuit on foot. The getaway car, getting the jewels appraised. Spending the money… God, I flipped out on him Lance, completely and totally flipped out. I went crazy.”

“Why?” Lance asked. “What other scene haven’t you told me about?”

“The hotel scene,” Rachel mumbled.

“Ah,” Lance said the light build clicking in his head. He had been right earlier when he had been thinking about how close the director wanted Nick and Jennifer to get.

“He tried to explain that it wasn’t a big scene, but I wasn’t listening. I heard kissing scene, hotel room and…my mind just steamrolled over any explanation he came up with. He was so angry when he left.” She felt the tears build in her eyes and rolled down her cheek silently. She smiled softly when Lance grabbed a new tissue placing it in her hand. She dabbed at her eyes.

“You know scenes like that don’t matter,” Lance said quietly. “They don’t mean anything to either party.” ‘Usually,’ his mind added, but he shook off that voice. “You know damn well that is true for Nick. Any kiss or touch he has to do today for the video shoot is because the director is making him do it. He’s acting; it’s not real.”

“I know Lance. I know. I just…” she sighed. “I don’t know. He’s never had to do this in any other videos. They know he won’t.”

“Is that why it’s bothering you? He’s doing it in this video?”

“Maybe?” Rachel said her voice small and quiet. “There have been a couple videos where they wanted him to kiss the female lead, but he told them he wouldn’t. And now, he’s doing it in this video. It makes me wonder and think…and it’s nothing good.”

“Stop,” Lance said firmly. “You know damn well that would never happen.”

“Like I said; I freaked out. It’s been known to happen.”

“Not too often. But Rachel, Nick loves you. My God, you’ve been together for over five years. And I wasn’t joking when I said earlier celebrity dating goes faster. So really it’s been like ten years…And during those five years, you two have been through a lot. Nick’s drinking, doing drugs. Any other couple would have thrown in the towel, broken up. But you guys stayed together. You’re bigger than this, Sis. Making a big deal out of a kiss for a video.”

“I know.”

“Is there something more than this?’

Rachel didn’t speak for a few minutes gathering her thoughts in her head. She knew Lance wouldn’t by the kiss as being the only thing that was causing her problems. Sometimes, having someone who knew her so well sucked.

“You know how when someone you know gets married or has a baby? Everyone starts looking at the unmarried and or nonparents and saying, ‘You’re next’ or ‘what are you waiting for?’” She didn’t wait for Lance to answer her. “Well, those questions are getting louder and louder ever since AJ and Rochelle had Ava. Everyone keeps asking when Nick and I are getting married. When are we going to finally settle down? When is he…”

“Gonna put a ring on it?” Lance finished, remembering Drew’s question from earlier and the resulting look on Rachel’s face.

“Yeah.”

“You know there is no pressure right?”

Rachel chuckled. “Yeah right Lance. I’m dating the last remaining bachelor in the Backstreet Boys and have been for years. By their accounts we should have been married ages ago. Everyone is wondering why we haven’t married. What we are waiting for. Then when the rags start talking…”

“Hey, you know better than to listen to what those magazines have to say,” Lance told her firmly. “None of the stuff that ends up in there is true. They are just people who are spinning lies and tales to make money. Have you talked to Nick about this?”

“We had the marriage talk a long time ago. He’s jaded from his own parents' marriage. Marriage isn’t in his cards.”

“But it’s in yours,” Lance said knowingly.

“Yeah it’s in mine,” she said softly. “It’s been on my mind a lot since Ava was born. I’ve been trying to think and work it out if I can give up that dream.”

Lance knew how much this was hurting his sister. Growing up in the deep south, they both had dreams of marrying and raising families. He always knew that dream would be difficult for him to achieve. But knowing his complications, he never expected Rachel’s dreams to be anything but fulfilled. 

“Listen to me go on and on about something that you can’t even do. That’s illegal for you to do,” Rachel said, picking her head up from Lance’s shoulder. “I’m sorry Lance.”

“Stop. This isn’t about me. It’s about you and Nick.” He pulled her head back down to his shoulder. “Did you work it out?”

“When I first dreamt this, I didn’t expect my life to be like this. Honestly thought I’d be living in Mississippi, marry someone from high school and settle in just like everyone else did. But then you became part of NSYNC; we settled here in Los Angeles. Next thing I know I’m dating Nick…”

“I know all about that,” Lance said. “I never expected all this to happen either. I never expected the group to blow up like it did.”

“The more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe that wasn’t my dream anymore. Maybe all I want isn’t to be married and have kids.” She felt Lance tighten his grip on her hand and she returned the squeeze. “Because I love Nick more than that dream. Nick told me his views on marriage really early in our relationship and I still stayed with him. Looking back now, if I wanted to be married, I could have easily ended our relationship. I could do that right now if I wanted to find a husband and have kids. But I don’t want that. It won’t mean the same to me; it wouldn’t mean as much to me. In order to have that, I’d have to let Nick go. I don’t think I can do that. I know I can’t do that. Finding another man wouldn’t be fair to him or me. Because there would be no way I’d be able to love him completely, wholeheartedly. I could never truly give my heart to him because Nick would still have it, always have it.”

“I’m not sure I should be happy or sad for you,” Lance said honestly.

“It’s okay to be both,” she raised her to head, staring into the same green eyes that looked back at her each morning in the mirror. “I am.”

This time Lance pulled Rachel into a hug. “Nick is a very lucky man.”

They exited the building together not long after. They walked side by side toward their vehicles. A lone figure was leaning against the side of Lance’s car.

“You’re a lucky man too,” Rachel said as Michael straightened when they neared.

Lance grinned when his eyes met Michael’s He could read the confusion in them as Michael’s brown eyes darted between him and Rachel. Lance knew Michael wanted to know if everything was okay.

“We’re still on for Sunday right?” Rachel asked staring at the two men.

“Yeah,” Lance nodded. “Golden Globes viewing party, movies, Wii games.”

“Awesome,” Rachel smiled. She hugged Lance like she hadn’t hugged the life from him a few minutes ago. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Lance said before releasing her. He watched as she drew Michael into a hug. Her words from earlier came back to his mind. Rachel’s dreams weren’t the only ones to go array. But he still wanted marriage and children. He smiled watching the scene in front of him as Michael and Rachel shared a laugh and another hug. Unlike Rachel, he just hadn’t found the man he wanted to share that dream with. When Michael turned to look at him after Rachel drove away he knew the search was over. Like his sister, his heart belonged to another man and there was no way he would get it back even if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to.

“You’re staring at me,” Michael said as he returned Lance’s stare. “Lance?”

Lance blinked, bringing Michael back into focus. “I love you.”

A slow smile grew on Michael’s face. He took a step forward and met Lance’s lips. “I love you too.” He said when the kiss ended. “How’d the talk go with Rachel?” He asked as they climbed into Lance’s car.

“Nick’s the luckiest guy on the planet.” Lance said as he pulled from the parking lot.

“I don’t know,” Michael reached over and took Lance’s hand. “I like to think I’m pretty lucky.”

*~*

Nick yawned. They had just finished the club scene and had one final scene to shoot. He hoped. He was ready to wrap up the shoot and head home; where Rachel was waiting for him. They had a lot to discuss. He had noticed something plaguing her for a couple weeks now but whatever it was, she wasn’t ready to share with him; shutting him down when he asked. Whatever it was just simmered for that long and finally boiled over this morning.

He sighed as he thought about that morning. He could have done a better job at controlling his temper. He definitely could have tried harder. He leaned against the wall in the hallway on the floor in the hotel. The crew was still setting up, getting things in place. For this scene, he and Jennifer were supposed to get off the elevator and walk to their room. He was supposed to act like he couldn’t wait to get to the room; kissing her, nuzzling her neck. 

Taking advantage of the break, he reached into his back pocket for his cell phone. Opening his messages up revealed a message from Lance and one from Michael.

‘M said I shouldn’t get involved. But talk with my sister.’

‘Lance never listens. But seriously, you are the luckiest man on the planet.’

He rolled his eyes at the two messages used to Lance and Michael getting involved with his relationship with Rachel. Sometimes it felt like he was dating three people. He tapped the Twitter icon to kill time. He scrolled through his timeline first to see what was going on before he went to his mentions. There were a lot of responses, mostly from his phone call to Lance’s radio show. He read most of them, stopping when he saw one from the Dirty Pop Twitter account, usually run by Lisa.

‘.@RachelBass all smiles after her other half @NickCarter calls in’

Nick clicked on the picture link, smiling when he saw the picture of Rachel. She wasn’t looking at the camera but straight ahead. He could see a little bit of Michael next to her. His eyes drifted back to Rachel’s face; well her profile. The smile was wide and he could just imagine those green eyes shining. He tapped on Rachel’s name bringing up her page and grinned when he saw all the pictures she tweeted and retweeted.

He saw the picture of her sitting in her chair with Michael draped over her. Another was a picture of her and Lisa. From the looks of it, it was a self portrait, they were cheek to cheek. The next picture was a group shot of Rachel, Lance, Michael, Lisa and Drew. The next photo had the caption of ‘Twin love’. Before he even opened it, Nick knew was the picture was. When it loaded on his phone, he saw that he was correct. Rachel and Lance grinned at the camera, their green eyes twinkling. Lance had an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Rachel had turned toward him, her arms wrapped around his waist. With a smile he retweeted the photo to his followers.

He went back to the first photo where it was just Rachel. He smiled again at how happy she looked and tapped the retweet button. He selected the quote tweet option and added his own comment to the beginning of the box. ‘Love her.’ He added a heart symbol at the end before hitting the send button. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw another photo that he had missed the first time around.

‘What’s wrong with this picture? @MichaelTurchin @RachelBass @LanceBass @NickCarter’ 

Nick raised an eyebrow when the picture loaded. No one was looking at the camera which told him they didn’t know it had been taken. Lance was standing by himself staring at Michael and Rachel. Rachel had her back to the camera, but he could see her arms wrapped around Michael, her head lying on his chest. Michael had a hand resting on the small of her back. There was an amused look on Lance’s face and he wondered what had been going on before this photo was snapped.

‘Wrong Bass, Turchin!’ He replied to the photo.

Bored, Nick typed his name into the Twitter search to see what people, who didn’t have enough balls to tag him, were saying about him. He didn’t do it often because there was usually nothing of value in what was said. He scrolled through the ones begging for a follow. He followed fans sometimes, just randomly selecting them. He opened a couple pictures, smiling as he saw the old photos of him and the group. He replied to one, figuring he just made the girl’s day.

He rolled his eyes seeing people talking about Ryan Gosling and how he could have been a Backstreet Boy. People said they could make him the sixth member. ‘Not gonna happen.’ People saying they could replace him with Ryan. ‘Definitely not gonna happen.’

One tweet caught his attention and he brought his eyes back to it. 

‘Think the reason why Nick Carter hasn’t married Rachel yet is because he’s waiting on her brother?’

The tweet in itself was dumb but his brain zoned in on the word ‘married’. There was another tweet saying how Rachel had dodged the marriage question on the radio and he wondered who brought the question up. It wasn’t a new question for him. He was constantly getting asked when he was getting married. Now that he was the last man standing in the band, so to speak, the question came up a lot more often than it had in the past.

He’d always been pretty clear on his intentions to marry. Marriage just was never in his cards. He saw what it did to people; his parents mostly. He could still remember the fights and arguments. There were days they were happy, but those were few and far between. Toward the end of his parent’s marriage, the fights were louder and longer. It was a sigh of relief to he and his siblings when his parents announced they were getting a divorce. Their parent’s marriage definitely spurned them all on the views. He didn’t look for his brother or sisters to settle down and marry. His answer had always been the same to the marriage question. He wasn’t getting married. Ever. Staring down at the photo of him and Rachel that posed at the backdrop for his phone he realized his views had changed.

He stuffed his phone in his pocket and walked with a purpose to where the director was flipping through the print layout. “Hey man, I need to talk to you about this scene.”

“Is there a problem, Nick?”

“What’s going on?” Jennifer asked, walking up to the two men.

Nick spared Jennifer a glance before turning back to the director. “I should have said something earlier but I can’t do this scene.”

“What do you mean you can’t do this scene?” Ralf Strathmann asked Nick. He could feel himself tense. The video was almost done. This was the final scene. While everyone else got to leave after this, he still had hours to go laying the video together.

“I’m sorry, but this…” Nick spanned a hand indicating the hallway where cameraman and lighting people were watching their conversation with interest. Nick wouldn’t be the first star to throw a fit on the set of a video shoot. “It’s too… intimate. I can’t do it.”

“Nick…”Jennifer said staring at him.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized to the director. “I should have told you this during the meeting this morning and I’m not too sure why I didn’t say something. But I don’t do scenes like this out of respect for my girlfriend. I can’t do the kissing scene.”

Ralf gritted his teeth, glancing down at the now worthless piece of paper. He looked back up at Nick ready to try to talk to him, but the look the singer was sending him, Ralf knew he wasn’t going to budge. “Alright,” he nodded, sighing. “Just give me a minute.”

“Nick, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Nick said turning to look at Jennifer while Ralf looked over his papers again, figuring out a way to rework the scene. “I love my girlfriend. I’m not going to kiss someone else…”

“It’s just acting; it’s not real.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“We’re not making out…”

Nick shook his head, cutting off Jennifer’s words. “It’s still a kiss. I haven’t done it in a video; nor will I do it in a video unless I can talk Rachel into being in it.”

“Alright,” Ralf said, breaking in, stopping their discussion before it got too off course and they started fighting. Then he knew Nick would definitely walk. “For this scene; we’ll start rolling, the elevator door opens, you’ll have your arm around Jennifer’s shoulders. You both will be smiling after you were just partying in the club. No kissing, you’ll turn your head and nuzzle the side of her head as you walk to your room. Good?”

Nick nodded. “What about inside the room?”

“We’ll cut out a lot,” Ralf said picturing the scene in his mind. “You’ll be sitting on the bed, wearing just your jeans. Jennifer will be getting your drink; she spikes the drink and turns, smiling at you. She’ll crawl up on the bed, straddling you. She hands you the drink you drink it. You’ll lean back on the bed; noses touching. Her hands will be on your chest, yours on her back pulling her down with you. When you’re fully reclined, the scene is done. We’ll pick it back up with you lying on the floor in your boxers with your arm handcuffed to the table.”

“So I’m allowed to straddle you and paw at you on the bed, but you draw the line at kissing? What’s the point?”

“The point is, I’m not doing it,” Nick snaps, glaring at Jennifer. “If you don’t like that then I’m not finishing the rest of this. You got me singing the song already; for all I care you can reshoot the rest of the scenes with an actor.”

“No, no need for that,” Ralf says calmly. “This will work out fine. I wasn’t shooting for an over-the-top sex scene. This was supposed to be an innocent beautiful scene. No kissing will work fine. Everyone ready?”

Nick nodded and looked at Jennifer. He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d walk. She must have noticed he meant business because she soon nodded.

“Alright,” Ralf clapped his hands. “Let’s finish this up. Nick, Jennifer in the elevator. Everyone else places. We’ll start recording with the doors close and then catch them stepping off and walking toward their room.”


	4. Chapter 4

Nick shut the door behind him, looking around the house. All was quiet. He frowned. He knew Rachel was home; her car was in the driveway. He walked into the living room a soft smile forming on his lips when he saw Rachel curled up on the couch, beneath a throw, sound asleep.

He slipped out of his leather jacket, tossing it on the arm of the chair and made his way toward his sleeping girlfriend. His heart was full of love. He reached out brushing a strand of her blonde hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. The ride home gave him time to think, especially after getting stuck in traffic.

He thought about his parents' relationship. The relationship he had with Rachel. Even the marriages of those around him. The relationship he had with Rachel was nothing like his parents' relationship. During the tumultuous year when he was drinking and doing drugs when they had some of their worst fights, they always came back to each other.

There were many reasons that year where Rachel should have dropped him and never looked back. He had past girlfriend’s break up with him for less. But she stuck it out; waded through all the bullshit he dealt her. She was there holding him when he got the news that his health wasn’t the greatest and she was there, next to him running as he tried to turn his life around. No matter how much she hated running (a fact which she never failed to mention on their runs) she was there every day, running just as many miles as him.

When he looked back at his pictures from that time, he was disgusted with himself. He looked terrible. There was no rhyme or reason why Rachel had stayed with him. He was grossly overweight, out of shape. He was surprised he could find his own dick to satisfy his girlfriend. When he came across those photos, he always asked Rachel why she stayed with him. Her answer was always simple. She loved him.

Their relationship, even at their worst, was better than even the happiest times in his parents'. After five years together, he still loved her just as much as he did that first day. Early in their dating, he waited for the ‘honeymoon’ phase to wear off but it never did. When they were apart, they’d still text each other at all hours; never want to end a conversation on the phone no matter how tired they were. They still chased each other around the house; made love spontaneously around the house after just trading a look.

His favorite though and he smiled as he thought of it was how they still held hands. They held hands walking down the red carpet, before she was pushed away for photos of the band only. He would hold her hand as they walked toward their destination no matter how short or far. They held hands while out on dates when it was just the two of them or when they were double dating. The best was when they were sitting at home by themselves on the couch their hands would automatically seek one another.

In all the memories he has of his parents, he could never remember one with them holding hands. He didn’t remember them exchanging small kisses in the doorway when they passed by one another. He didn’t remember seeing his father walk up behind his mother while she was cooking and wrap his arms around her. He definitely didn’t remember his father pulling his mother to her feet and slow dancing in the living room.

There were many instances he could recall that happening between Rachel and him. He would come up behind Rachel in the kitchen, wrapping his arms around her waist, placing a kissing on her neck; or the moments when he was the one doing the cooking and she would come into the kitchen and hop up onto the counter next to him. Sometimes that would lead to burnt dinner because he was unable to pass up the perfect moment.

Nick was so against marriage because he was the product of two people who should have never been married. But why was he so against it now that he found the one person he was meant to be with? Did he believe that a piece of paper would completely change him? Change Rachel? Would they start acting different because they each wore a gold ring?

He stared down at Rachel’s bare hand, imagining a ring – his ring – nestled between her pinkie and middle finger. This time it didn’t bring fear. He didn’t break out into a sweat or want to run from the room. Now, his heart swelled and he couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out on his face as he saw his ring on Rachel’s finger; a sign proclaiming she was his. He looked down at his own naked hand wanting a ring on his finger telling everyone that his heart belonged to her.

Kneeling down, he reached out running his fingers over her cheek before he pressed his lips lightly against hers. He resumed his caress when he pulled away, watching as his touch pulled Rachel from sleep. He smiled as Rachel’s eyes opened in a cloud of confusion. He watched as she blinked the sleep away and met his eyes. The smile she sent him hit him straight in the heart.

“Nick,” she whispered her voice scratchy from sleep. She sat up quickly, the blanket falling away as she launched herself into Nick’s lap. Her arms wound around his neck and her legs around his waist as she held him tight.

Nick chuckled as he caught Rachel and kept them from tumbling backward to the floor. He adjusted his grip on her before holding her tight.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered over and over again, holding him tightly, not wanting to let go. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Nick comforted, stroking her hair.

“No it’s not,” Rachel pulled away just enough to be able to look at him. “I was out of line this morning. I overreacted. Said terrible things…’

“Stop,” Nick kissed her softly, stopping her words. “We both said things we didn’t mean this morning.”

“I’m sorry Nick,” she said staring into his blue eyes, hoping to convey just how sorry she was.

“Me too,” Nick cupped her cheek, watching as her eyes closed and she nuzzled his hand. His heart was so full of love. Using that hand, he brought her lips back to his. His lips met hers in a soft, closemouthed kiss. He tried to express the love he felt for her in that one kiss. “I love you,” he whispered against those lips. He searched Rachel’s green eyes. “Today’s been a long day.”

Rachel blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting those words. “Alright… Have you had dinner yet? I don’t even know what time it is.”

Nick shook his head. He lifted Rachel from his lap and placed her back on the couch; immediately missing the feel of her against him. He read the confusion in her eyes and sent her a reassuring smile as he knelt on his knees in front of her. He grasped her hands in both of his. “That’s not what I meant.” He looked down at their hands; his strong ones holding her more delicate ones.

“What’s wrong, Nick?” Rachel asked gently.

“I didn’t do the scene,” he blurted out catching Rachel off guard. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. “Jennifer was a little put out. The director was fine with it. And I’m sorry. I should have brought it up at the walkthrough this morning.”

“Nick…”

“No,” Nick said shaking his head. “I’ve done a lot of thinking today at the shoot, on the way home. Sitting here watching you sleep. Kissing is an intimate act. I haven’t kissed anyone else but you in five years and I’ve realized that I don’t want to.”

Rachel gasped softly, her lips parting in shock as she tried to figure out what Nick’s words meant. Her eyes searched his looking for a sign, reading nothing but happiness. “Nick… What…” 

Nick laughed softly, dropping his eyes. He took a breath trying to calm his racing heart. He had never been this nervous in his whole life. He wasn’t even this nervous during his first concert as a Backstreet Boy. “This isn’t coming out right at all.” He looked back up, her green eyes drawing his blue ones. 

“Hey,” Rachel dropped one of his hands, allowing her to palm his cheek. She brushed her thumb across the skin feeling the three days growth. “It’s just me.”

“There is nothing ‘just’ about you,” Nick placed his free hand over hers, holding it against his face before grasping it back in his. “Our relationship is the greatest thing to happen to me. Even at our worst there was still no one else I imagined myself with. Every day I find myself loving you more than I did the day before. I want to dance, in this room with the lights down low, only with you. I want to hold only your hand and kiss only your lips.”

Rachel’s eyes filled with tears as she listened to Nick’s words. It sounded almost like… She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Her brain was misfiring. “Nick…”

“Will you marry me?” Nick asked, the words coming out quieter. There was an added pressure on his heart as if something had it in its grasp and was squeezing tighter and tighter. His throat felt swollen only allowing shallow breaths to reach his lungs.

Tears slid down Rachel’s cheeks. She stared into Nick’s eyes, the fear she was reading earlier, still evident. He was afraid she’d turn him down. She opened her mouth trying to speak but nothing came out. She settled on nodding her head in ridiculous fashion and watched as Nick’s face broke out into a grin. She felt laughter bubble up as she launched herself back into his arms much like she had earlier. This time Nick wasn’t able to keep them from falling. She knocked him off his knees. He grunted as he landed on his rear end but he was able to keep them upright.

“I don’t know what to say,” she was finally able to whisper through her tears. She raised her head kissing him firmly.

“I love you would suffice,” Nick chuckled lightly against her lips. “An actual yes would be great too. Just so I didn’t misread that nod.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Rachel said kissing him with each affirmation. “I love you, Nick.” She kissed him again, deeper this time. “I love you so much.”

“I love you,” Nick smiled against her lips. He hugged her to him again, holding her tight. The vice that gripped his heart as he waited for her answer, released and he could finally breathe again. Almost. Rachel was squeezing him tight, but this pressure was welcomed. He had been slightly worried when he voiced the question that he would have some regret, some residual effect but there was none. There was no weight pressing down on him. He felt happy. He felt…alive!

At least until he heard Rachel start laughing. Laughter wasn’t something he felt he should be hearing after asking the woman he loved to marry him. “I’m not sure how I should take this laughter.”

“Oh Nick,” she laughed, raising her head from his shoulder to look at him. She palmed his cheeks, kissing his lips again. “We belong together.”

“Yes I know,” he said, staring at Rachel; her eyes shone with laughter, still bright with tears.

“You said you were thinking a lot today,” Rachel started as she controlled her laughter. “I did some thinking today… Well a little more than that such as talking out loud to Lance.” She saw Nick give her a questioning look. “I was gonna tell you this tonight but you beat me with your news first.”

“Your answer is still yes isn’t it?” Nick asked cautiously.

“Of course it is, Silly,” Rachel grinned wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m not going to change my mind.” She sealed her statement with a kiss. “Though,” she gave him a sly grin resting her forehead against his. “I might if you don’t produce a ring.” Her grin widened when she saw a feint blush move across his face.

“Yeah,” Nick said slowly looking sheepishly. “That was one of the thoughts I had. How can I propose without a ring?”

“Just like you did,” she let him off the hook; her fingers running through his short hair on the back of his head.

“Let’s get off the floor, first.” Nick said as they climbed up on the couch. He sat first and pulled Rachel down in his lap. “What news did you have to tell me? Where you gonna propose to me?”

“No,” she had an arm around his neck, her hands clasped loosely together. “Just the opposite in fact.”

“You were gonna break up with me?” Nick’s heart stopped.

“What? No no no,” Rachel shook her head. “I wasn’t gonna break up with you. No.” She spoke very adamantly.

“Okay,” he said able to breathe again. “That’s good to know. So what is it?”

“Seems kind of dumb to bring up now…”

“Nuh-uh,” he spoke softly. He placed a knuckle on her chin raising her head to meet his eyes. “Tell me.”

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately,” Rachel started out. “Especially since Rochelle had Ava,” she couldn’t stop the small giggle that escaped at the look on Nick’s face. Marriage was a big step for Nick to make; she definitely wasn’t going to push her luck with babies. ‘At least for the first year.’ “Relax, Nicholas.”

“Rachel…” the words were stopped when Rachel placed a finger on his lips.

“Shh…” she kissed the spot her finger touched. “One of my dreams has always been to get married and have children. It’s never changed at least that’s what I thought. I know your views on marriage; you didn’t believe in it, you were never getting married. But questions still kept coming. When Howie got married they asked. When AJ got married they asked. When little Ava was born they asked again.”

“Rachel…” he swallowed the rest of his words when Rachel gave him a look. He decided it was best if he let her talk so he settled back against the couch and tightened his arms around her.

“It was a little hard to take, all the questions. I knew the answer. We weren’t. At least not in the foreseeable future. Here I was, in love with a man who didn’t share the same dreams as I but at the same time I was hopelessly in love with him. As I got to really thinking about it, I realized that getting married and having kids wasn’t my dream anymore.” She could read the questions in Nick’s gaze but he remained silent allowing her to go on. She let go of the wrist she had around his neck and dropped the hand to her lap, seeking Nick’s hand. His hand searched for and found hers and their fingers entwined seemingly without help. “I realized that if that was what I really wanted – a husband and children – I could easily let you go and go and find it.”

She looked down at their hands how they fit so perfectly together; a symbolism really; for their lives. They fit together. “But I didn’t want that. It turns out I don’t want a husband if it's not you. I don't want children if it’s not with you. It doesn’t mean as much to me anymore. My dream isn’t having a husband, two point two kids, a white picket fence and a dog. My dream is you.”

Nick thought it was impossible to love this woman anymore than he already did but she just proved him wrong. His heart swelled and even felt his eyes glisten with tears at her words. It was humbling to know that someone loved him so much to give up her dreams. What could he say to that?

He raised the hand holding hers so he could kiss her knuckles. He then pressed her hand on his chest over his heart, allowing her to feel the heart beat. “This has always belonged to you. It will always belong to you. I love you.”

Rachel blinked, dispelling tears. Two twin tear drops rolled down her cheek as she leaned forward catching Nick’s lips in hers in a kiss that was meant to show him how much in love with him she was. There was no word to accurately describe what she was feeling.

Nick ran his fingers through Rachel’s hair on either side of her head, holding her in place as he kissed her lips. His heart screamed out in joy at how much he loved this woman. Words from earlier penetrated his brain and this time he found himself chuckling. He felt Rachel lean away from him and he met her eyes. “I get it now.”

“Get what?” Rachel asked confused.

“You said, ‘we belong together’ earlier; I just now figured out what you meant,” he was still laughing softly even as he met her lips again. “While I was coming to the conclusion that I was going to marry you, you realized you didn’t need to marry me.”

She joined Nick in laughing as she hugged him. “We belong together.”

“Yes, we do,” Nick murmured in her ear. He nuzzled the side of her head and was rewarded when she turned meeting his lips once more.

“Did this really happen? Are we really engaged?” She held his face in the palms of her hands.

“We are really engaged,” he told her with a smile. He kissed her again, feeling the excitement coursing through her body. She was jittery, unable to just sit still. “You wanna call Lance?”

“Can I?” Rachel pulled back, her grin wide as she stared down at Lance.

“Go,” he said with a grin, releasing her from his grasp. He watched as she bounded from his lap and almost floated to the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. He was sure her feet hadn’t touched the ground. If he was honest with himself he was feeling the same way. He continued watching as she tapped a few times on her phone as she came back to him. His smile grew when she crawled back into his lap and settled.

“Lance, guess what!”

His heart nearly burst with love listening as Rachel told Lance the good news. It swelled even more when he felt Rachel take his hand in hers. He was sure she didn’t realize she was doing it. It was natural. ‘Michael was right,’ he thought sending Rachel a smile when she met his gaze. 

He was the luckiest man on the planet.


End file.
